Lenovo Tips Pro-Level Yoga P40 2-in-1

Lenovo announced more additions to its ThinkPad P series on Tuesday, including a convertible Yoga-style ThinkPad geared for folks who need to do a lot of digital sketching.

At Autodesk University 2015, took the wraps off a trio of new machines, the most notable of which is its latest business-grade Yoga machine, the Lenovo ThinkPad P40 Yoga.Lenovo’s Yoga line of notebooks have touchscreen displays and 360 degree hinges that allow you to fold the screen back and hold the computer like a tablet. Alongside that there’s also the ThinkPad P50s, which Lenovo says is a “more affordable” workstation that still packs premium functionality in a sleek package.

The company describes its newest Yoga as a high-performance mobile workstation, and it is targeted at those who need portability without a sacrifice in reliability and computing power. It’s been nearly 4 years since Lenovo introduced the first Yoga convertible, and since then we’ve seen models with big screens, small screens, powerful processors, and energy-sipping Core M chips. The computer has a 14 inch touchscreen display and support for pressure-sensitive input thanks to a Wacom digitizer that can recognize up to 2048 degrees of pressure when you use a ThinkPad Pen Pro. Our new ThinkPad P40 Yoga is the first machine that truly provides both the sketching experience of a tablet and the power of an ISV-certified workstation.” A multimode mobile workstation, the ThinkPad P40 Yoga offers the versatility to work across four modes — laptop, stand, tent and tablet — giving professionals lots of flexibility.

Lenovo states that this ability gives creative professionals will be able to sketch their designs onto a high performance and reliable mobile workstation. All three new devices are scheduled to roll out before the end of March 2016 and come with Windows 10 (though some models also offer Windows 7 and 8 options). Lenovo teamed up with Wacom to create a custom driver for the P40 in order to deliver the authentic ‘pen and paper’ experience that graphics pros want. The system provides a responsive pen and touchscreen powered by the Wacom Active ES technology, offering a full 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity on a high-res (2560×1440) IPS display. For centuries, sketching has been a starting point from the germination of an idea to realize final product be it a painting, building, movie, or supercomputer.

The P40 also features MIL-spec durability, Lenovo’s Lift’n Lock keyboard which raises the level of the keyboard to help protect the keys in tablet mode, and Lenovo’s single-cord OneLink+ docking connection. Powering the P40 is an unnamed Intel “Skylake” Core i7 processor, Nvidia Quadro M500M discrete graphics, up to 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 1.4, Mini DisplayPort 1.2, an Ethernet port, a micro SIM slot, and 4-in-1 SD card reader. Additionally, the P50s features Lenovo’s Power Bridge technology which offers provides both a hot-swappable external battery along and a smaller, internal battery.

The slimmer small form factor variant can be loaded with up to two Nvidia K1200 GPUs while the roomier full tower machine supports anything up to dual Nvidia M4000 graphics cards. The newest addition to the Lenovo ThinkStation P Series, the ThinkStation P310, builds on the success of the Lenovo ThinkStation P300, offering an entry-level machine with the advanced technology of a high-end workstation. Both models support a range of storage options (including 512GB M.2 SSDs), up to 64GB of RAM (twice the capacity of the older P300) and CPUs from Intel Core i3 to an Intel Xeon E3-1200 v5 chip. Marking another ‘first’ for Lenovo is the inclusion of its “Lift ’n Lock’ keyboard, which is found on some of its other non-mobile workstation laptops. With Lift ’n Lock, the keyboard’s keys retract snuggly into the laptop’s body when the display is folded all the back into tablet mode, securing them out of the way for a more comfortable tablet experience.